This invention relates to the manner in which a handheld radiotelephone is integrated with a touch sensitive pad and with a touch sensitive screen for entering and displaying information.
Conventional portable, handheld radiotelephones (xe2x80x9cradiotelephonesxe2x80x9d) are provided with a liquid crystal display or other display (collectively referred to as xe2x80x9cLCDxe2x80x9d), whose size (usually two to four lines) is designed to be suitable for only telephone related functions, such as displaying a reference number optionally with its associated information, for example, a name and other relevant information.
With the convergence of wireless and information technologies, a radiotelephone serves, not only as a voice communication device, but also for information access, with text and graphics applications ranging from composing e-mail messages, editing a personal calendar, drafting memos, and editing an address book, to surfing the Internet. This kind of hybrid radiotelephone, sometimes referred to as a Smart-phone, a Web-phone or some other similar name (collectively referred to as a xe2x80x9cSmart-phonexe2x80x9d herein) is equipped with a larger graphics LCD to display these text intensive and graphics applications in a more optimal way. To address the need for entering and editing alphanumeric and other characters in a more effective manner than by using the keypad, the LCD of Smart-phones is also overlaid with a touch sensitive screen so that an embedded keyboard or character recognition software can be used as a better alternative for entering and editing alphanumeric and other characters.
However, this approach is not optimized, because embedding the soft keyboard in the LCD reduces the overall useful area of the LCD proportionally for actual information display. Further, this approach is not optimized for recognition of cursive writing, because the area allocated in the touch sensitive screen is limited to a relatively small area for single character recognition.
Vendors of certain Smart-phones have attempted to address this issue by substantially increasing the LCD size. This alternative approach increases the overall size of the radiotelephone housing so that the radiotelephone can no longer be characterized as a hand held device. What is needed is a radiotelephone with an additional, large, touch sensitive display that does not substantially increase the size of the housing.
These needs are met by the invention, which provides a unique approach to provide an additional touch pad and/or touch sensitive screen (referred to collectively herein as xe2x80x9ctouch sensitive displayxe2x80x9d) and to integrate this device with a radiotelephone. This approach provides an additional character entry device and an additional text and/or graphics display device, without substantially increasing the overall size of the radiotelephone housing.
The touch sensitive display, when not in use, is received and securely stored within the radiotelephone and is easily withdrawn from the radiotelephone housing for use. The touch sensitive display is received into the radiotelephone housing through a slot or aperture in a selected surface (top or bottom or, preferably, side) of the housing and may be locked in place or otherwise firmly held relative to the radiotelephone. The touch sensitive display is electronically connected to, and may be spaced apart from, the remainder of the radiotelephone by a cable or by use of short range electromagnetic signals, such as infrared signals and other wireless formats.